PISCATAWAY, N.J. - The Columbia wrestling program has
already put its stamp on the 2013 EIWA Championships and there is still one
more day of competition left. For the first time since 1912, the Lions will be
represented in the finals by three wrestlers. Matt Bystol (133), Steve Santos
(149) and Josh Houldsworth (165) will take the mats Saturday afternoon at
Rutgers University with the chance to become EIWA Champions.

The 1912 Columbia Lions notched four runner-up finishes.
Columbia also has a chance to do something that hasn't been accomplished in 78 years. The last time Columbia had multiple champions in one year was 1935
when William Chilvers (126) and Ed King (1935) won titles. That feat has only
been accomplished four times in Columbia wrestling history: 1905, 1907, 1911
and 1935.

As a team, Columbia finished day one in seventh place with
67.5 points, 3.5 ahead of Army. Jake O'Hara and Penn Gottfried also remains alive
heading into Session III. O'Hara will open Saturday in the consolation
semifinals, seeking a spot in the third-place match, while Gottfried will go for
seventh.

At 149 pounds, Santos began the day with his fifth pin of
the season, taking down Rutgers' Ken Theobold in 6:14. Santos held a 4-1 lead
with over two minutes of riding time heading into the final minute of the match
when he finally secured a complete hold on Theobold, pinning him on his back.
The Brick, N.J. native added his sixth fall of the season in the next round,
pinning the eighth-seed Andrew Lenzi from Penn.

In the semifinals, Santos took on the fourth-seeded
Christopher Villalonga from Cornell. This was the first meeting this season
between the two, as Santos did not wrestle during the dual match between the
Lions and Big Red this season. Villalonga, who had two wins by decision to
reach the semifinals, challenged Santos valiantly, but fell 4-2.

Army's Daniel Young, the third seed, will be across from
Santos Saturday. The two met in the finals of the New York State Wrestling
Championships, with Santos downing Young, 5-2. This matchup also happened in
the 2011 EIWA Championships with Young taking the decision over Santos that
year.

Bystol entered Friday as the eighth seed in the 133-pound
bracket, but showed early on he could take on anyone. Up first for the
Libertyville, Ill. native was the top seed, Vincent Dellafave from Rutgers.
Bystol quickly took control and walked off the mat with a 6-1 decision in hand.

In the semifinals, the fifth-seeded Jordan Thome provided
little resistance to Bystol's momentum, as the Columbia junior cruised to a 7-0
win. He will take on Lehigh's Randy Cruz in the finals, an opponent he has yet
to face in his career with the Lions.

Houldsworth also opened the EIWA Championships with a great
win, upsetting the second-seeded Corey Lear, 10-3. Bucknell's Lear advanced
past Lehigh's Benjamen Haas in the opening round, but did not bring the same
intensity to his match against Houldsworth. Houldsworth, also a junior for
Columbia, maintained control of the match throughout to secure the win.

The semifinals of the 165-pound bracket featured a rematch
of a Northeast Duals bout in which Nicholas Visicaro from Rutgers (the sixth
seed) defeated Houldsworth, 4-3. This time around it would be Houldsworth who
would earn the win, downing Visicaro with a 6-2 decision.

Houldsworth will have a chance to avenge a loss from the
dual season to the top seed, and the nation's No. 1 wrestler, Kyle Dake from
Cornell in the finals.

At 157 pounds, O'Hara will be looking to become the fourth
Lion to secure an automatic bid to the NCAA Championships. O'Hara was among the
four Lions to reach the EIWA semifinals Friday, but a heartbreaking 1-0 loss to
Harvard's Walter Peppelman will force him to earn his bid through the
consolation bracket.

O'Hara reached the championship round semifinals with an 11-3 major decision
over Princeton's Brandon Rolnick and a 4-2 decision over Rutgers' Scott
Winston. The victory over Winston made up for a 3-1 loss to the Scarlet Knight
at the Northeast Duals earlier this season.

In the consolation semifinals, O'Hara will meet Cornell's
Jesse Shanaman. The match will be a replay of a Feb. 2 battle that O'Hara won,
5-2.

Penn Gottfried will close out the Columbia lineup competing
Saturday, as the junior will take on Patrick Prada with seventh place on the
line. Gottfried will look to make up for a 6-4 defeat from the opening round
against the Midshipman.

Following the first round defeat, Gottfried captured wins
over Franklin & Marshall's Aaron Maldoff, 9-2, and Princeton's Max Rogers,
12-3. A tough loss to Army's Hunter Wood, by a score of 8-4, set up the
seventh-place rematch.

Two additional wrestlers earned wins Friday for Columbia.
Stephen West opened the 174-pound bracket with a pin of Sacred Heart's Sam
Sheppard in 5:12, but was upset in the quarterfinals by Penn's Ian Korb. In the
consolation round at the start of the evening session, West went up against
Rutgers' Greg Zannetti, falling to his third-seeded opponent, 4-1.

Nick Mills dropped his opening round match in the 197-pound
bracket, but bounced back with a major decision, 10-2, over Brown's Augustus
Marker in the consolation bracket. Unfortunately, Bucknell's Tyler Lyster
topped Mills, 10-0, in the next round.

The final day of the 2013 EIWA Championships begins at 10
a.m. Saturday with Session III. That session will feature the wrestleback semifinals
and seventh-place matches, while the final session that is slated to begin at 3
p.m. will be the site of the fifth, third and first-place matches.